Chaudhary Devi Lal

Chaudhary Devi Lal, (born September 25, 1914, Teja Khera, India—died April 6, 2001, New Delhi), Indian politician and government official who founded the Indian National Lok Dal political party and was instrumental in the formation of Haryana as a state separate from Punjab state in northwestern India. He twice served (1977–79 and 1987–89) as Haryana’s chief minister (head of government) and had two brief terms (1989–90 and 1990–91) as the deputy prime minister of India under two consecutive administrations.

Lal was born in a small village northwest of Sirsa (in what is now far-western Haryana) to a wealthy family of Jats (landowning farmers). His family moved to the nearby town of Chautala when he was still a young boy. When he was 15 years old, he was drawn to the Indian National Congress (Congress Party) and its movement to gain India’s independence from British rule. His participation in acts of civil disobedience (satyagraha) in the 1930s and the Quit India campaign during World War II led to his imprisonment on several occasions and put an end to his formal schooling. Most notably, throughout his career he worked vigorously to advance the cause of farmers and other rural people as well as Dalits (formerly called untouchables, now officially classified as Scheduled Castes).

Lal continued his activism on behalf of farmers after India’s independence in 1947, that period constituting a vibrant chapter in his political career. He first ran for elected office in 1951–52, when he won a seat in the first Punjab state legislative assembly. Lal would remain a major force in regional politics for the next several decades, despite being in and out of public office and having an often contentious relationship with the Congress Party. During his second term in the Punjab assembly (1962–67), he worked to separate the predominantly Hindi-speaking Haryana portion from Punjab, which was achieved in 1966.

Lal’s estrangement from the Congress Party was complete by the early 1970s, and in 1975 he was one of the many politicians opposed to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who were jailed during the national emergency that she imposed. He was released in 1977 and joined the newly formed Janata (People’s) Party (JP) in opposition to Congress, winning a seat in the Haryana state assembly and then becoming the state’s chief minister. Internal dissensions in the JP forced him to resign from office in 1979, but the following year he garnered the first of two terms (1980–82 and 1989–91) in the Lok Sabha (lower chamber of the Indian parliament). In between his terms in the Lok Sabha, Lal was again elected to the Haryana state assembly, and in 1987 he was once more named chief minister.

By the time of the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, Lal was part of a newly formed anti-Congress party, the Janata Dal (JD), consisting of members of the JP and other parties. The elections were contentious and fiercely partisan, but, in the end, the JD-led United Front (UF) prevailed. Lal nominated fellow JD member V.P. Singh, one of the principal founders of the party, to lead a UF coalition government as prime minister. Lal was named deputy prime minister, but he was dismissed in July 1990, and Singh’s fragile coalition lasted less than a year. An internal rebellion within the JD—led by Lal and Chandra Shekhar—resulted in a vote of no confidence against Singh in the Lok Dal in November 1990, and Shekhar quickly replaced Singh as prime minister. Shekhar reinstated Lal as deputy prime minister, but Shekhar’s government fell in March 1991 (though both men remained as caretakers until elections could be held in June).

Lal was unsuccessful in the June polls, as he lost races to both the Lok Sabha and the Haryana assembly. He also lost electoral bids to those two bodies in 1996 and to the Lok Sabha in 1998. Lal was elected to the Rajya Sabha (upper chamber of the Indian parliament) in 1998 and remained there until his death.

In September 1991 Lal embarked on a yearlong “awakening journey” (chetna yatra) that took him to rural communities in Haryana and several other Indian states. He continued such visits over the next couple of years. By 1996 he had announced his intention to form a new political party in Haryana that focused on the welfare of farmers and others with lower status in Indian society. The party was officially launched as the Haryana Lok Dal (Rashtriya) in 1998, and by the following year it had become known as the Indian National Lok Dal. In 1999 Lal relinquished leadership of the party to his son, Om Prakash Chautala.